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Were the 1980s' Anti‐Nuclear Weapons Movements New Social Movements?
Author(s) -
Breyman Steve
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
peace and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1468-0130
pISSN - 0149-0508
DOI - 10.1111/0149-0508.00054
Subject(s) - social movement , peace movement , novelty , german , underpinning , new social movements , nuclear weapon , movement (music) , collective action , political science , action (physics) , political economy , mobilization , sociology , law , psychology , social psychology , politics , history , engineering , aesthetics , philosophy , civil engineering , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics
The cycle of social movement mobilization over the past generation moved theorists to make claims about the novelty of student, peace, ecology, and women's movements of the period. It has not been determined whether such characteristics apply to the anti‐nuclear weapons movements of the 1980s. This article reviews the theoretical underpinning of “new social movements” and assesses the extent to which it accurately describes the action, identity, and organization of recent peace movements, with special attention to the West German antimissile movement. The author argues that anti‐nuclear weapons efforts, in both Europe and the United States, evinced a distinctive blend of borrowed and innovative features but had more in common with their predecessors than previously recognized.